The role of the Adult Film industry in format wars by Camilo Supelano

The role of adult films in format wars (VHS vs BETAMAX)

One of the most famous battle in media between two brands, was the confrontation of VHS (JCV) and Betamax (Sony), fighting for being the most popular and best format in the market.

All of this sounds interesant besides that we use and see this brands every day, but what if this war was decided for the adult film industrie? Sounds crazy but is not. In fact, in the recent days was the outcome between the actual format wars (Blu-Ray vs. HD/DVD) taking also Sony as the protagonist, was decided for the same industry before.

The war begins when the pornographic industry does not know for which of the common formats take for his market. Between the users, there are a rule called ‘The Rule of First Adopters’ and this is that, Supposedly, the first group of content providers to colonize a new medium once it becomes commercially viable will almost always be the producers of adult-oriented material, so that is pornography. It means that an alleged trend that predicts that the first group of content providers a new medium will almost always be the porn industry.

In the late 70s and early 80s had a general incognita on both sides. In one corner was the little guy known as Betamax, and in the other the big bad VHS. The arguments were polarized with the specifications and performance of the functioning, but clearly the Betamax was better quality than VHS. Sure in the beginning it was, but as the technology race for longer playing times on single tapes kicked in, the quality difference was arbitrary. There was a back-and-forth on the quality, but to tell the truth most consumers really didn't care that much. What people cared about most was the cost, and one that VHS was cheaper. Cheaper to mass produce, cheaper to sell, and therefore cheaper to buy.

One of the most important factor that decided the winner of this battle apart from of the past specs of both, was the duration. The VHS allowed to maintain a lot of information into the videocassette and the VHS does not; this was important because with the determination of adult film industry, the duration wrapping the core element of record long films and programs. We can see these differences in data, because in 1976 the whole market was completely dominated by Betamax, but three years later the sales of VHS duplicated it.

The format quality and performance did not matter to the adult film industry, because there are different external factors that made the decision clear. Starting with the surprising and denial judgment of Sony for pornography industries to do not allowed use the Betamax for adult film purposes. Apart of duration, as I told before, the big decision comes from the usability of people with the formats. The determination and the past factors did not was the element that made the decision, was the people and the percentage of the use as I told before too.

In 1984, just the 12% in the US continue using the Betamax, for his great performance possibly, but Betamax razed with the market and taking the rule of the First Adopters, we already know who the winner was, is not a decision from the industry or formats, the people have the power to choose which format has the best performance in price/output that can fill all needs.

The industry that move around 13 million of dollars per year, have the power of decided in an indirect way the predominant format, not just for the winning of VHS or Blu-ray nowadays, porn was the first to incorporate multimedia technologies in web, like Javascript and Flash, also the first service that allowed the pay through credit cards. Furthermore, brands like EAT24 destined the 100% of budget to accompany adult content. The courage of VHS to post in his covers, the images of the most important characters in the porn industry was determinant in the marketing of the product, because was the force that impulse the rotation and distribution of the videocassettes. Also the variety of the content for the little restriction made the big force to create the idea of the principal format.

Finaly, it is hard to believe the way how is defined by a mysterious or taboo film format but with a power without limits. We saw the influence not just with the victory with VHS against Betamax, now is the same and all the possibilities of innovation in many ideas and facilities that we see and use every time in the film, web or videogames that were born from porn. Does not matter the big specs of a physic format, all is decided since a lot of permissions and licenses that people can decided and the big percentage of people is consumer from adult films, so it is important for the brands have allied this big industry for all of his promotion and sales, without restrictions. This could be the lection that Sony learned from the loss with Betamax, because nowadays, the history is different, Blu-ray apparently winning the battle with the legendary HD/DVD, with a big factor that Sony modified this time allowing the adult films in his format for marketing around the world. The lesson should be learned.

Here is a short video from Dylan Dubeau explaining not just how the adult film industries affect the format wars, is the influence with everything of this film format. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtfqWirZgOs

REFERENCES:

https://www.fayerwayer.com/2013/04/quien-mato-al-betamax-la-pornografia-fue-o-la-duracion-de-las-cintas-tambien/
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheRuleOfFirstAdopters
http://www.weirdretro.org.uk/captains-blog/format-wars-vhs-vs-betamax-porn-won
http://valenciaplaza.com/acabo-el-porno-con-la-guerra-entre-betamax-y-vhs
http://magnet.xataka.com/preguntas-no-tan-frecuentes/no-el-vhs-no-triunfo-frente-al-betamax-porque-no-hubiese-porno-en-este-ultimo-formato

http://www.xataka.com/otros/especial-tecnologias-derrotadas-betamax
http://peliculasdeculto.blogspot.com.co/2008/02/beta-vs-vhs.html

http://aikawa.com.ar/2008/01/la-guerra-que-ya-fue-betamax-vs-vhs.html
http://www.netquest.com/blog/es/productos-de-leyenda-vhs-vs-beta/